M. Knight Shyamalan's newest film, which tackles the "fantasy" genre, succeeds in delivering the goods, the goods being a well-written script and in-depth, sympathetic characters. A sad-sack apartment supervisor (Paul Giamatto of AMERICAN SPLENDOR and Burton's PLANET OF THE APES) discovers that someone is swimming in the pool after hours-and sees that it's a young woman. He goes in the pool when she doesn't come up for air and nearly drowns himself. He wakes up in his apartment-and she's there, watching him. She tells him her name is story and that she comes from The Blue World. Of course, he doesn't believe anything is out of the ordinary at first, but the more he talks with her -and the more he sees, such as the wolf-like creature that's after her-and the secret room underneath the swimming pool-he believes. In fact, he suspects that he's instrumental in helping her with her mission. Soon, the whole apartment complex becomes involved with her, in one way or another. How things turn out, exactly, and who plays which role in this myth-come-to-life, keeps you guessing until the very end.

If you were disappointed by his last movie, THE VILLAGE (I loved it), you'll enjoy this, as it's more along the lines of SIGNS and UNBREAKABLE.